Off Duty Officers

Q. When will Orlando police officers begin working off-duty again at city-owned properties such as the Orlando Arena?A. Orlando police officers will provide security during their free time Friday and Saturday during shows of the Southern Ballet Theatre at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre.Orlando officers had been barred since December from working at places such as Bob Carr and the arena because of a pay dispute.City officials had balked at paying officers $26.84 an hour, or roughly time and a half, as stipulated in their union contract.

An off-duty Lakeland police officer, enraged because another driver cut him off in traffic, followed the man, pushed him and punched him in the face Sunday before two bystanders broke up the fight, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said. Jerry Monroe, 41, was arrested Monday on a misdemeanor battery charge and placed on paid leave. Monroe and his 14-year-old son were eastbound on County Road 540A near Lakeland about 7:40 p.m. when a car switched from the left lane into the right lane in front of him, passing too closely and failing to signal, a sheriff's report states.

The actions of two off-duty police officers, who helped city council candidate Andrea Dennison put up campaign signs, has angered her opponent, council Chairman Carl Robertson.Robertson, who is seeking re-election, said he questioned the propriety of off-duty officers being involved in campaigns following a weekend incident at a neighbor's home.There are different versions of the incident but all agree that officers, D.J. Johnson and Joe Mulson, were erecting Dennison campaign signs in Robertson's neighborhood.

Nine people were arrested outside Terrace 390 early Sunday following a melee in which exiting patrons assaulted two off-duty Orlando police officers who were working security for the club, located on the first floor of the Bank of America building. One officer said he felt "tugs" on his gun holster and baton. The scrum near the main entrance on North Orange Avenue began about 1:45 a.m. when a group of women demanded to be re-admitted to the club without paying. An exiting group of male patrons then added to the disturbance, police said.

THE DRUG BATTLEFIELD. Fairfax County officials fear the war on drugs in nearby Washington, D.C., will send dealers into that county's public housing projects. So they have devised a plan to offer free rent to police who agree to live in public housing projects. ''We saw the increased drug activity in the district and were concerned about the spillover into our public housing,'' said Mary Stevens, spokeswoman for the county housing department. The housing authority began hiring off-duty officers in October to patrol the grounds of the projects, at a cost through February of $38,000.

Owners of the Pleasure Dome have canceled their plans to give tours Saturday of the Tuscawilla sex club, saying the city refused to cooperate.Attorney David Wasserman said Thursday the home's owners tried to hire off-duty officers to provide traffic and parking control and security, but the city refused to let them.The Dome owners, Jerry and Elizabeth Katz, feared that without the city's help, angry neighbors and lots of traffic and parked cars could cause a problem.''We knew it was going to be a mob scene,'' said Larry Walters, Wasserman's co-counsel.

CHICAGO -- The city's police superintendent said Monday that he was stepping down as head of the beleaguered department, but he would not say what role two videotaped beatings by off-duty officers had in his decision. Last month, prosecutors filed felony charges against an officer accused of beating a female bartender. Six other officers were removed from duty after being accused of assaulting four businessmen in a bar. Superintendent Philip J. Cline took over in November 2003 and had been expected to retire this year.

MILWAUKEE -- Three white former police officers were convicted Thursday of beating a biracial man and violating his civil rights, but a suspended officer was acquitted in the case. Federal prosecutors said the four were off-duty officers who beat Frank Jude Jr. in October 2004. The jury convicted Jon Bartlett, 35, Daniel Masarik, 27, and Andrew Spengler, 28, of violating Jude's civil rights and conspiring to assault him while acting as officers. Each faces up to 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

LADY LAKE - A Gainesville man was arrested Sunday, accused of trying to attack another man and several police officers with a pipe at The Villages retirement community.Michael David Wilk, 30, was subdued early Sunday by several off-duty officers who broke up a fight at Katie Belle's saloon in The Villages, reports said. Wilk remained at the Lake County Jail Sunday with bail set at $15,250 and charged with battery, assault, aggravated assault and resisting an officer.Officers said Wilk was involved in a fight with another man at Katie Belle's when he went to his vehicle and grabbed a 2-foot-long pipe and a flashlight, according to reports.

SEMINOLE COUNTY - Police officers throughout Seminole County, as well as deputy sheriffs and Florida Highway Patrol troopers, will blanket the northwest part of the county tonight in a zero-tolerance traffic-safety operation aimed at impaired and aggressive drivers. The officers will be patrolling an area north of State Road 434 and west of Sanford Avenue to the north and west county lines. Although the operation will be based at the Lake Mary Police Department, off-duty officers, including traffic officers from other cities in Seminole, will participate as part of the City-County-State Traffic Unit.

Even while on vacation, Orlando police officer Ishmael "Izzy" Hernandez felt compelled to answer the call of duty. While at Jupiter Beach in Palm Beach County, the 26-year veteran cop breathed life into a 5-year-old that was found unresponsive and face down in the lagoon on Monday evening. Hernandez and another citizen Ross Olcott, pulled the boy out of the water after they heard the screams from frantic family members, according to Sgt. Vincent Ogburn. Once on shore, Hernandez worked to resuscitate the child by blowing air into his lungs until Fire Rescue official arrived.

A woman whose arm was broken during an arrest by two off-duty Orlando police officers at Universal Orlando earlier this year wants the misdemeanor charges against her dropped. Nancy Kavallierakis acknowledges she was drunk on May 7 when she got into an argument with her husband, verbally attacked security and police officers and was asked several times to leave the theme park where she was celebrating her cousin's 40 t h birthday. But what sparked officers to take her down on the third floor of a parking garage wasn't a crime, Orlando lawyer Mark Conan said.

A 15-year-old high school student died early Saturday when his bicycle was hit by a car driven by an off-duty Windsor Locks police officer on Spring Street. The bicyclist, Henry Dang, was a sophomore at Windsor Locks High School who played basketball and ran track. He was taken to Hartford Hospital , where he was pronounced dead. The police officer, identified by local police as Michael Koistinen, was driving west on Spring Street, near West Street, when his car hit Dang, authorities said.

Oviedo police arrested two men who fled from an off-duty Sanford police officer. The officer saw the men Saturday morning on County Road 419, pushing a truck as though it was broken down, a police report said. As he was about to stop to help, the two ran away and jumped a fence into the Live Oak Reserve subdivision. Oviedo police arrived and arrested one man trying to force his way into a home on Red Ash Circle. The man, Demarcus Reddick, 21, was under house arrest in an attempted-murder case from Orange County, according to police, and was wearing his court-ordered ankle monitor.

An off-duty Orange County deputy was punched in the face today when he tried to break up a fight between two young men, the Sheriff's Office said. The deputy, whose name was not released, was riding a bicycle at Seminole Ridge Apartments in Pine Hills about 5:40 p.m. when he was sucker punched, investigators said. The young men who were fighting and another youth ran away, but they were captured about 30 minutes later. Marquis Heard, 20, was arrested on a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer.

Testimony got under way Friday in the state's case against Davin Smith, a 20-year-old accused of killing an off-duty Orlando police officer outside a Pine Hills bank two years ago. Prosecutor Robin Wilkinson told jurors during her opening statement the case was about the greed of two young men. In the end, Alfred Gordon, an 18-year police veteran, was dead because he resisted a robbery. Wilkinson told the panel they can expect to hear from several witnesses who heard Smith talk about the robbery that "went sour" and subsequent shooting.

Under a policy enacted by Sheriff Kevin Beary March 1, Orange County's off-duty deputies are no longer allowed to provide security for abortion clinics. Beary cited liability and danger to the officers as the reasons for the change. He also said the Sheriff's Office needs to appear neutral and, along those lines, deputies cannot provide security at union protests or topless clubs. Clinic officials note that for 15 years they have used off-duty officers without any problems. They say that when no officers are present, by the time police respond to a problem, it may be too late to make an arrest.

The body of an off-duty New York City police officer, who had been shot three times in the head, was discovered Wednesday in a marshy lot near John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, police said. Milagros Johnson, 25, was last seen between midnight Tuesday and 1 a.m. Wednesday accompanied by several other off-duty officers at a club in Queens, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The officers said they did not know whether she left the club alone. Her car was found later in the day in Brooklyn, but Kelly said it did not appear that Johnson had been the victim of a carjacking.

ORANGE COUNTY---An off-duty state trooper slammed into a car late Friday on Town Center Boulevard near Raintree Ridge Road. Ryan Korzeb, 23, was driving his 2004 Subaru when he lost control on a curve. Passenger Daniel Chirinos, 22, of Orlando was critically injured. Korzeb's car rammed into that of Christiane B. Winchester, 40, of Kissimmee, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report. Winchester suffered minor injuries.

The International Drive business community is planning to take a cue from MetroWest's crime-prevention playbook. Businesses along the region's best-known street plan to begin hiring off-duty law enforcement officers to patrol the area, in hopes of allaying the fears of travelers. The program, called the International Drive Public Safety Initiative, is expected to be unveiled within the next two months. The plan might include foot and bicycle patrols to augment the existing, on-duty police presence.